


Wound Down

by enmity



Category: Tales of Series, Tales of Zestiria
Genre: F/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-14 05:36:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17502608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enmity/pseuds/enmity
Summary: When she wakes up surely she won’t recall anything beyond the brief sting of an accidental wound, her bandages applied with a touch as easily attributable to an invisible guardian as to anyone else.





	Wound Down

A tent at least is safer than grass and open air. Dezel flips the entrance open with one hand and lowers Rose’s body with as much grace as can be expected from someone asleep and partly bleeding – regrettably so, he thinks and winces when his consciousness exits hers in one sharp instant as he pulls back to survey the damage.

She’s laid haphazardly, arms hanging limp by her sides and drowsy face turned to press her cheek against her own splayed hair. The night air is damp and hot this time of year and despite the adequate attire – pants and jacket the color of shadows – a part of him suspects she’s cold. He’d know; sometimes it’s difficult to process just how many years it’s been since he made the pact, all the dizzy fevers and fainting spells the others had to take turns caring for and fussing after. They’d still barely shed the Windriders name then, and Rose had been smaller, impossibly enough, but the difference between then and now is as obvious as the reminder it serves of how easily time slips them by.

Dezel releases his grasp from her knee, the talon-torn fabric he’s rolled up to expose her wounded leg, and thanks the stars for the lack of prying company outside as he rummages through the first-aid box for bandages. It’s just his luck to let a monster catch him off-guard on the way back. He curses his own sloppiness, the lurking speculation of all the possible outcomes that could’ve left her in a worse state than asleep in her tent as he sits by to patch up the shallow gash running up her calf.

 _Stupid_. Getting her hurt is the last thing he wants, and yet here he is. Here _she_ is, and when she wakes up surely she won’t recall anything beyond the brief sting of an accidental wound, her bandages applied with a touch as easily attributable to an invisible guardian as to anyone else. She won’t suspect a thing, he tells himself, and pretends that makes things better somehow.

Rose winces at the first touch of disinfectant. Despite that he knows she can’t see him, he follows through on the impulse to cradle her jaw and brush her hair out of her face in a vague attempt to soothe. The urge to let the gesture linger goes unfulfilled, however, and soon he’s back to dabbing at the wound, watching as a patch of red seeps partway through the cloth he wraps it around with.

"Good enough," Dezel remarks, once he’s finished putting away the supplies. He watches Rose for a moment, the absent rise and fall of her chest, and when she starts folding back into herself he realizes he was right, and tucks her into the sleeping bag so she won’t wake up shivering. “I won’t let you get hurt again,” he whispers. A few more moments pass before he leaves her to rest, allowing himself silently out the tent to meet the bare night air. “Not on my watch.”

It’s the least he can promise her, considering everything.

**Author's Note:**

> partly me being interested in dezel and rose's pre-canon rs, the idea of dezel accidentally getting rose injured during one of his, umm, taking over her body, and of course dezel's skewed/paternalistic ideas of affection. dezel your priorities :(


End file.
